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CHILDRENS SCIENCE SERIES 


THE 

BOOK OF 
STONES 

COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY THE 
FEDERAL WRITERS’ PROJECT 
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION 
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA 


—JUNIOR PRESS BOOKS — 

ALB E RTXWHITMAN 

& 4 co 

CHICAGO 1939 






-p£uz1 


Federal Works Agency 
Work Projects Administration 
F. C. Harrington, Commissioner 
Florence Kerr, Assistant Commissioner 
J. D. Newsom, Director of the Federal 
Writers 9 Project 


Sponsored and copyrighted, 1939, by Division of Extension Education, 
Board of Public Education, Philadelphia 


©ciA 


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
BY J. J. LITTLE & IVES COMPANY, NEW YORK 


A 314379 


NOV -2 1939 


NOTE 

The Book of Stones is the second in a series of children's 
science books prepared by the Federal Writers' Project of 
Pennsylvania. 

This book was written by John F. Hausmann, Jr. under 
the supervision of Paul Comly French, State Director and 
George B. Reeves, Assistant State Director, all of whom 
resigned before publication. 

The illustrations and cover design are by Edward 
Giordano, former staff artist. 

Conrad C. Lesley 
Acting State Director 
































Book of Stones 


One day John passed a field covered 
with stones. Some were green, some 
grey, some red and some were almost 
black. Some stones were small like 
pebbles. Others were large like Cobble¬ 
stones. John came home with his cap 
filled with stones. His mother told him 
to place them in a wooden box out in the 
shed. 

John’s brother Ned was home for his 
vacation. Ned was very much interested 
in John’s stones. 


7 


children’s science series 


"Rocks and stones,” Ned said when he 
looked at John’s stones. "That is just 
what I have been studying about in 
school. I have found many different 
kinds of stones myself.” 

The next morning they both went out 
into the field to look for more stones. 

"Where do all these stones come 
from?” John wondered. 

"All stones come from some moun¬ 
tain,” Ned replied. "The soil and mud 
are also parts of mountains. They are 
stones that have been broken into very 
small pieces. 

"Frost breaks large stones into smaller 
pieces. The change from hot weather to 
cold weather helps to break the stones. 
The rains and the winds also cut and 
wear the stones until they break. 

8 



THE BOOK OF STONES 


"At the bottom of all mountains there 
are many large and small stones and 
there also is much soil and gravel and 
mud. These stones, soil, gravel, and mud 
have all been a part of the large rocks 
that make up the mountain itself.” 

The two boys sat down on a stump and 
Ned continued with his tale. 

"Do you remember what happened to 
the pitcher with water in it that froze at 
Grandmother’s last winter?” Ned asked 
John. 

"The pitcher cracked,” John replied. 

"The pitcher cracked,” Ned said, "be¬ 
cause the water spread when it froze. 
The frozen water pushed out. When 
water freezes between rocks it acts in the 
same way. The rain and snow that settle 
in the cracks of the rocks turn into ice. 

9 



children’s science series 


The ice pushes the rocks apart. When 
the ice melts and the water moves the 
rocks about, they are broken into smaller 
pieces. 

"Near sandy places, by the sea or near 
a desert, the wind carries sand along with 
it. The wind wears away the hardest 
rocks. It is helped by the sand that it 
carries along with it. The wind then 
acts like a sandblast. The harder rocks 
take a longer time to cut away while the 
softer rocks are carved away first. 
Chunks of hard rocks are left. Strange 
shapes are then formed. In this way the 
mountains lose part of their rocks.” 

"Our teacher showed us a picture of a 
mountain that looks like a castle,” John 
said. "She said the rain and the winds 
made the mountains look like that.” 

10 




Hard rocks take a long time to cut away. 
























children’s science series 


"That is true,” Ned answered. "And 
pieces of rocks are broken off to make 
these shapes. What happens to these 
pieces of rocks? Some we know become 
changed to soil and gravel. Some of the 
pieces of rocks are carried away from the 
mountains by the streams and rivers. 
As the streams and rivers rush down the 
mountain sides they carry the stones with 
them. 

"During the winter the stones that lie 
on the river beds become covered with 
ice. Ice is lighter than water. You have 
seen how ice cubes float on top of your 
lemonade. That is just what happens 
when ice forms in the river. When 
enough ice forms the ice rises to the top 
like a float. 

"The ice carries with it the stones that 
12 



THE BOOK OF STONES 


lie on the bottom of the river. The float¬ 
ing ice and the rocks beneath move down 
with the current to far places. Some 
rocks are left on the banks of the river. 
Some rocks remain on the river bed. 
When the river dries, hundreds of years 
later, the rocks again can be seen.” 

John was puzzled by this story. 

"But there are rocks that weigh as 
much as small buildings,” he said. "No 
river could have carried those large 
rocks.” 

"Those rocks are called Lost Stones,” 
Ned told John. "I have heard of a Lost 
Stone ten feet high and some have been 
found that weighed six thousand tons. 

"Men who have studied our mountains 
and rocks say that the earth once was a 
hot, boiling mass of iron and rock. After 
13 



children’s science series 


a long time parts of this hot, boiling mass 
cooled. No one knows how long it took 
for the earth to cool. 

"The crust of the earth cooled first. 
After millions of years, the center of the 
earth became cooled. As it cooled, the 
center of the earth became smaller. The 
crust of the earth had cooled long before 
the center of the earth had cooled. Now 
the crust of the earth became too large. 
You have seen an apple that is dried. 
The skin of the apple is all wrinkled. 
Thus the earth slowly began to wrinkle. 

"The wrinkles came where the earth 
was weakest. The weak places gave way 
more easily. The wrinkles in the earth 
came where there had once been an 
ocean. Where oceans had dried the 
earth was made of mud soil. Now the 
14 



THE BOOK OF STONES 


tops of old mountains pushed their way 
through these weak places of mud soil. 
This was the beginning of our rocks/’ 
"But how were these rocks moved from 
place to place?” John asked. 

"Rivers of ice that we call Glaciers 
moved the rocks and stones,” Ned ex¬ 
plained. "Glaciers are made by snow. 
Many millions of snowflakes made a 
Glacier. The snowflakes are frozen into 
a river of ice. This river of ice slowly 
pushes down the mountain sides. As it 
pushes down the Glacier carries along 
with it loose rocks, dirt, and stones. 

"Ice bends, so a Glacier bends over 
rocks. It fits into hollows. The ice 
cracks on turning corners. When the 
Glacier reaches straight ground it again 
becomes a solid ice. 

15 



children’s science series 


"The river of ice moves slowly. It 
carries along with it on either side a line 
of rocks and stones. Most Glaciers travel 
no more than a few feet a year. As they 
travel over the rocks they polish the 
rocks and make them round. Sometimes 
the Glacier scratches the rocks. 

"There are Glaciers in the world today. 
Some are in Greenland, near the North 
Pole, and there are some small Glaciers 
in the Alps in Switzerland. 

"Millions of years ago, Glaciers covered 
most of the earth. Some say that per¬ 
haps the sun gave less warmth. Others 
say because there were many high moun¬ 
tains the air on the earth was colder. 
The air on mountaintops is always colder 
than the air on the lowlands. The clouds 
coming over the mountains turn to snow 
16 



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children’s science series 


and ice. They cover the mountaintops 
all the year around. 

"On this rising land of long ago, the 
air became colder and colder. Snow fell. 
It froze, then fell and froze again. Gla¬ 
ciers overran the world. The moving 
Glaciers ground and pushed and broke 
down rocks and mountains. They 
carried these broken pieces of rocks and 
mountains a long, long way with them. 

"That is why we now find these large 
boulders and fields of cobblestones far 
from the place where they broke olf. 
These very stones in this field may have 
been brought here many, many years 
ago by a Glacier. That is how the stones 
and rocks were moved about.” 

"Are there many different kinds of 
rocks?” John asked. 

18 



THE BOOK OF STONES 


"Yes,” Ned said. "There are many 
kinds of rocks and stones because they 
were not all made the same way. 

"A very large part of the whole world 
is made of rock. This rock was once 
very hot. Some of this rock had risen 
out of the inside of the earth. Some of 
this kind of rock has cooled on top of the 
earth. Quartz, Granite, and Basalt are 
the important rocks of this kind. Most 
of the crust of the earth is made of 
Granite. 

"Granite comes from the inside of the 
earth. The hot boiling Granite burst 
from the inside of the earth. But the 
outside crust of the earth which had 
cooled a long time before stopped the hot 
Granite. Then the hot Granite gradu¬ 
ally cooled and remained buried just 
19 















































































THE BOOK OF STONES 


inside the earth’s crust. Years and years 
later the earth’s crust was worn away by 
winds and rains and then we found the 
Granite. 

"Granite has different shades of color 
in it. There are grey and pink grains, 
and many other colors.” 

Ned handed a large piece of Granite to 
John who said, "I can see lots of colors in 
this Granite.” 

Ned picked a white flat stone from the 
pile of stones. He tried to make a dent 
in it with his knife. The knife blade left 
only a small mark on the rock. 

"This is a piece of Quartz,” Ned ex¬ 
plained. "See the tiny blade mark that 
the steel point left in the Quartz. Quartz 
is a very hard rock. It is one of the 
hardest of our rocks. This piece of 
21 



children’s science series 


Quartz is white, but it comes in many 
colors, yellow, brown, purple, and pink.” 

John saw a shiny, smooth rock. It 
was black and green and the colors made 
him wonder what it was. 

"Tell me about this rock,” he asked 
Ned. 

"This is a piece of Basalt,” Ned ex¬ 
plained. "Basalt is a rock that rose 
from the inside of the earth. The Basalt 
we find on the earth escaped from cracks 
in cliffs. When the Basalt cooled it 
sometimes formed in long, six-sided col¬ 
umns. In Ireland, at a place called the 
Giant’s Causeway, there are huge cliffs 
made of these strange Basalt columns. 
The Palisades or cliffs along the Hudson 
River in New York State are also made 
of Basalt. 


22 



THE BOOK OP STONES 


"Many of the things which are now on 
the outside of the earth were affected by 
another kind of rock we call Lava,” said 
Ned. "Has your teacher told you about 
volcanoes?” he asked. 

"Oh, yes!” John replied. "She told us 
that part of the deep inside of the earth 
has never cooled and is still boiling. She 
said that a volcano is an opening in the 
earth’s surface where the steam from the 
boiling center of the earth has broken 
through the outer crust.” 

Ned looked pleased. "That is right,” 
he said. "But sometimes more than 
steam comes out of a volcano. Some¬ 
times a stream of boiling rock comes out 
of the volcano. We call this liquid rock, 
Lava. 

"Lava comes out of the mouth or top 
23 




Precious gems are really just rare, beautiful stones. 


of a volcano. Sometimes much Lava 
comes out of volcanoes. Sometimes so 
much Lava comes out that it may cover 
an entire city. Pompeii, a city in Italy, 
was buried that way. Sun, wind, and 
rain could not reach the covered city. 

24 





THE BOOK OF STONES 


After two thousand years the buried city 
of Pompeii was uncovered. The city was 
very much as it was when buried. The 
Lava kept the city from rotting in the sun 
and wind. 

"In Yellowstone Park there is a forest 
of huge tree stumps. This forest was 
buried under the ashes of a great volcano. 
The covered tree stumps have turned to 
stone. The rains and the Yellowstone 
river have torn the ashes away. The 
large stumps of trees now stand in the 
sun. They have turned to stone. 

"There is another group of rocks. 
These rocks are formed in layers. These 
rocks have not come from the hot inside 
of the earth. They have been made by 
the broken pieces of Granite, Quartz, 
and Basalt. Sun, wind, rain, and the 
25 



children’s science series 


ocean washed and ground the hard rocks 
down. They are wearing and grinding 
the hard rocks all the time. 

"Granite, Quartz, and Basalt broke 
into smaller pieces. The soft part of the 
rocks turned to mud. The hard Quartz 
was ground to sand. The mixed mud 
and sand settled on the bottom of ponds 
and lakes. Streams and rivers carried 
this soil from the mountains and fields 
to the sea. There the sand and the mud 
were pressed into layers. These layers 
were turned into stones. 

"Shale is a mud rock. It can be cut 
with a knife. Shale also splits into thin 
sheets. It breaks easily and crumbles 
and becomes just mud again. 

"Sandstones are made up from grains 
of sand. The grains of sand come mostly 
26 



Many times shining pillars are formed in underground 

CAVES. 

from Quartz. A grindstone is a fine 
Sandstone. Sandstones wear away by 
rubbing against something hard.” 



























children’s science series 


Ned looked through a pile of stones and 
picked up a small round yellow stone. 
He now rubbed the stone with a piece of 
Quartz. Some of the sandy grains 
rubbed off. The stone felt very sandy. 

"Limestones are another rock that does 
not come from the inside of the earth,” 
Ned continued. "Limestones are made 
mostly from the shells of one-celled ani¬ 
mals that lived in the ocean. One-celled 
animals are the smallest animals in the 
world. Some of their tiny shells are no 
longer than a grain of sand. 

"Many years ago the shells of these 
small creatures began to gather in small 
piles as the animals died. Through the 
centuries, millions and millions of the 
shells were added to these piles on the 
floor of the ocean. 


28 



THE BOOK OF STONES 


"After millions of years these piles of 
shells became pressed into the form of 
rocks which we have named Limestone 
rocks. Later, when the oceans were de¬ 
stroyed the Limestone rocks became dry 
land. The Pyramids in Egypt are made 
of Limestone. 

"You can tell when a stone has lime in 
it by pouring acid on it. When you pour 
acid on a Limestone the acid sizzles and 
bubbles. 

"Many times Limestone forms under¬ 
ground caves. The water dripping 
through the Limestone roofs forms long 
glittering shapes. They look like colored 
icicles. They are made slowly, drop by 
drop. Some of the drops fall on the floor. 
In time they are high rods. The rods 
reach the ceiling. Many times the 
29 



children’s science series 


shapes that hang from the roofs meet the 
rods rising from the floor. When these 
shapes meet they form shining pillars. 

"Coral is another rock made by the 
shells of tiny animals. The Coral looks 
like the petals of a plant. But Coral 
really belongs to the animal world. The 
centers of these petal forms, Polyps, are 
really mouths. These animals build one 
upon the other. Those that live on the 
inside die. But life blooms on the out¬ 
side. Whole islands are built by these 
tiny gem-like creatures of the seas. 

"Another group of stones are the soft- 
layer rocks. These rocks have been 
washed by rivers and oceans and have 
been heated by the sun. Some of the 
rocks have laid in ocean beds. Others 
have laid under new layers of rocks. In 
30 

























































children’s science series 


time all these things changed the soft- 
layer rocks into different kinds of rocks. 
The rocks have been changed into new 
shapes. 

"Marble, Gneiss and Slate are the 
important stones of this group. Sand¬ 
stones have been changed to hard Gneiss. 
Gneiss is as hard as Granite. Shale has 
been changed to Slate. Slate breaks more 
easily than Shale, but is much firmer. 
Slate can be split into thin sheets. These 
sheets of Slate are used for roofing. 

"Now, we come to the loveliest stone of 
all stones, Marble,” Ned said. "Marble 
is hardened Limestone. It .is a light- 
colored smooth rock. The Marble beds 
lie deep underground. Marble is used by 
many artists who carve beautiful statues 
from it. 


32 



THE BOOK OF STONES 


"The artists who make these statues 
are called sculptors. They are the finest 
of all stonecutters. Marble is also used 
in building many public buildings be¬ 
cause of its great and lasting beauty.” 

John agreed with his brother that 
Marble was the loveliest of all the stones. 

He thought that some day he, too, 
would like to learn to carve beautiful 
things from Marble. 


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